Lovely Lofoten

In the beginning of June I went to Stamsund in Lofoten, Norway. I haven't ever been quite so far up in the North before. Wow. It was beautiful.

Up there

We took part in annual international theater festival in Stamsund with "Imitation of Life" by Boris Nikitin. Stamsund is a sleepy fishing village with population of 1100 people. Little red houses everywhere and countless fishing boats. The smell of air-dried cod in the air.

Cod

I didn't have so much information about the location and the festival before getting there, but it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. One can really tell that the people responsible for this festival really enjoy what they are doing and do it with passion. They took really good care of us. I haven't ever experienced three meals a day and free yoga lessons for participants =). And our very own little red house as accomodation. I'd love to go again...

Nallu, my faithful traveling companion

It is also lovely that they try to engage the whole village to this festival event. It all started on an opening day with a procession through the village with marching band, local school kids doing gymnastics, local choir singing. So it's definitely not just and higly artistic bubble that happens to appear into the village for a while, but rather an event for all the locals also. And an opportunity to mingle and make new friends from all around Europe.

Or meet old ones... That was rather unexpected, though. On a last little plane from Bodö to Leknes. I was just sitting there and waiting for the take-off, when a friend and a colleaque from Finland slouches in. I hadn't seen him in approximately seven years. Could been in Tibet... But nonetheless, there he was and bound to take part on the same festival as me. How small is the world actually.... So cool. Kimmo: It was great to have a chance to exchange the latest. Hope to see U soon again. =)

Fjelds, or arctic hills, if U like

I had quite some free time while there also, so I went to see other performances. I saw pretty nice things, but one of them really stood out. This was a sound installation called "Ghost - Echoes of a Life" on an island of Törnholm just outside the village. One needs to take a short rubber boat trip to get there and then you get a mp3-player and a head-set. The installation is a site specific audio-walk that takes you around the little island in a strange world of The Maker. Without going into the details of the story they tell you, I just need to say that the soundscape was just amazing. Very threedimensional and convincing in every detail and layer.

Törnholm island

Yeah. Stamsund and Lofoten was quite something else. And the midnight sun... It was so funny to observe the other members of our team to experience it for the first time. They vere going positively bananas about it =) =). Well, I admit, it is pretty amazing. And I hadn't realized how much I had missed it. And the sound of the seagulls (this I thought would never happen...)

More fjelds

It also seems that we were extremely lucky with weather. It is highly uncommon that the days are so warm and sunny for many days in the row. But for us it was quite pleasant indeed. Clear blue skies and temperature over 20 deg Celcius.

 

In the harbor

Buoys in the midnight